Caribbean: A taste of paradise

Blinding white sand, luxury boltholes, calypso and goat curry – the Caribbean’s 7,000 islands, islets and outcrops offer a whole lot. We can help you choose the right spot.

Spot rays in the Cayman Islands

You might think one palm-fringed beach with sparkling blue water is much the same as any other. But the variety of the Caribbean is a big surprise.

There are white-sand coral islands that almost disappear at high tide and raging volcanic titans with secluded coves smothered in greenery. There are English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Creole-speaking islands, one of communism’s final outposts and even an island once owned by the Knights of Malta (St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, in case you were wondering).

You can hike up the highest point in Holland (it’s on tiny Saba, 877m) or scuba dive over one of the largest brain corals in the world (house-size, off Tobago). You could also visit a ‘pan-yard’ (home of a steel band) in Trinidad or listen to a world-famous reggae troupe with a Jamaican crowd.

And, of course, on almost any Caribbean island you can watch the sun set over a sea horizon, with a rum punch in hand. Whatever your idyll, here’s some tips on finding it.

Best for beautiful beaches

The coral-based islands – where the reefs erode to blindingly white sand – generally have the finest beaches.

Barbados is fringed with them: the west coast is calmest (try Paynes Bay), the south coast the liveliest (try Accra or Miami Beach).

So too are the islands of Antigua – where the isolated beach bars in the south-west are particularly good – via St Martin (try Simpson Bay for cool; Orient Beach for bars and impossibly blue water) and St Barts (pretty, protected bays with swimmers wearing a mere nuance of a bathing suit) up to Anguilla. Anguilla has the finest sand and sea of all – Shoal Bay East is lively, Sandy Ground has good beach bars.

Lounge on the beaches of Salt Whistle Bay in the Grenadines

The Grenadines have deserted strips to sail to, including the Tobago Cays (where Jack Sparrow was marooned), as do the British Virgin Islands – dip into the pools and grottoes of the Baths and swim to laid-back Jost van Dyke’s Soggy Dollar Bar. Then there’s the Bahamas, where the sand and sea of the out-islands is unlimited – almost every one has superb strands.

On the ‘taller’ islands there are pretty coves, sometimes with dark, volcanic sand. On Tobago’s north coast, Englishman’s Bay and Castara are tropical idylls. Puerto Rico has some cracking bays with sugary orange sand (though it’s pure white on the offshore islands of Vieques and Culebra).

Jamaica has the best of all, with immense strips such as the seven white kilometres of Negril in the west, delectable curves around Ocho Rios and heart-stoppingly pretty inlets, such as Frenchman’s Cove, in the east.

Best for absolute luxury

Sybarites will be well satisfied – there are hotels with spas and villas with snap-finger but sympathetic service, all in the prettiest settings. The west coast of Barbados has villas worth squillions, and that’s not to mention its famous hotels; similarly St Barts.

Elsewhere there are lovely, luxurious enclaves, usually tucked away on their own islets (the Grenadines), secluded in isolated coves (Antigua) or on their own stretches of magnificent sand (Anguilla). Or even, perhaps unexpectedly, high in the mountains – as on St Lucia and the plantations of old Jamaica. Most of these islands also have serious restaurants, giving an extra culinary dimension.

Best for Caribbean culture

It’s carnival time in Trinidad

There’s practically a rhythm for every island in the Caribbean – salsa (Cuba and Puerto Rico), merengue (the Dominican Republic), zouk (Martinique), calypso (Trinidad and the south-east Caribbean) and, of course, reggae (Jamaica). Ask around to catch a concert.

Caribbean food has improved markedly in recent years. Try St Martin, Barbados, Puerto Rico and St Lucia. It’s still fun to grab a fish stew or goat curry, though. And – who’d have thought it – conch. This rubbery, dalek-like inhabitant of the conch shell is impossibly chewy, but once it’s been ‘cracked’ (tenderised with a hammer) and battered (in both senses of the word) by a Bahamian and then served in the backstreets of Nassau, it’s delectable.

Almost all the islands have reefs on which you can snorkel; some are known for their scuba diving. In the bleep of a depth sounder, the coral-clad walls of Cayman (Grand Cayman’s North Wall and Bloody Bay in Little Cayman) drop from 7m to 700m. Bonaire is known for its slopes and bright colours. Anguilla has sunk wrecks, now furred with life.

The jumbled slopes of Dominica and tiny Saba (as steep and fertile underwater as it is above) are forested with sponges and plates. And the nutrients from Venezuela’s Orinoco River feed the corals in Tobago, making them larger than anywhere.

Best for adventure

As you roll over to toast your other side on the beach lounger, you might forget that the islands have plenty to set the pulse racing. Recently, ziplines have come to the Caribbean – in St Lucia, St Kitts, Jamaica and Antigua – so you can fly through the tropical treetops. In St Lucia you might consider conquering a Piton (the distinctive, incisor-shaped twin mountains in the south); in Jamaica, catch sunrise from Blue Mountain Peak.

Islands are networked with old farmers’ paths, which make hiking a joy, particularly if you have someone to explain the weird and wonderful natural life to you (Tobago Forest Reserve is spectacular). There are long-distance paths in Dominica (try the new 184km Waitukubuli Trail), Martinique and Guadeloupe. Puerto Rico is an adventure playground, with caving and canyoning as well as hikes. River swimming is a newly discovered pleasure:all mountainous islands have waterfalls, so you can go for a hike then cool off with a swim.